Stevens on Oregon’s radar

Posted By
John Henderson
On
April 2, 2010 @ 9:02 am
In
College Basketball |
5 Comments

INDIANAPOLIS — I ran into Brad Stevens’ old fraternity brother from DePauw in the hotel elevator this morning and he said that Oregon is going after Stevens. Checked around my alma mater and apparently, former Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny, the point man on the coaching search, has flown to Indianapolis to check out interest.

It’s a good fit. The Ducks move into a state-of-the-art, Nike-backed arena next winter and want a big name to usher in the new era. Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon wasn’t interested. Mark Turgeon, a former Duck assistant, signed an extension at Texas A&M. Oregon was not really interested in Minnesota’s Tubby Smith and knew it had no shot at Michigan State’s Tom Izzo.

With Stevens engineering one of the great Cinderella stories in Final Four history, the Butler coach has now filled the bill as a “big name.” He also only makes $900,000, making him more affordable than the coaches who told Oregon no. However, he’s an Indiana boy through and through. He grew up in the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville, went to school at DePauw and worked in marketing in Indianapolis before joining Butler as an assistant in 2001.

Would he leave for Nike money? He’s already atop everyone’s wish list but Oregon should be atop every coach wanting to move up. It’s the most attractive opening (Boston College, DePaul, Charlotte), nearly the entire team is back and the Pac-10 is awful. It’s there for the taking. Stay tuned. After the Final Four, news from Butler won’t end.